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9/26/07

Because it is TS Eliot's Birthday, here's a bit on the Ifugao MUSIC & DANCE ENSEMBLE OF BANAUE, Philippines

A perhaps not-so-side-note: given my own Northern Philippine ancestry (Mama was from Baguio, Papa from La Union), I am happy to be seeing some Northern Philippine cultural events in the Bay Area. I think there are a good number of Filipino Americans who, in their "quest" to reclaim an indigenous past, however specious that logic may be, tend to gravitate toward the tribal and cultural groups of Mindanao, however absent their claim to these ancestries. I believe they do this because of the stereotypically fierce appeal of these "uncolonized" people. In this way, I believe these Filipino Americans are furthering the idea or belief of a romanticized uncolonized Mindanao that is an untamed Frontier. Certainly, I see them go at it with the same gusto as the tone of Frederick Jackson Turner on The Frontier in American History (William Carlos Williams' "devil-may-care men who have taken / to railroading / out of sheer lust of adventure--").

The Flipside is that the stereotypically fierce appeal of these "uncolonized" people also feeds into the contemporary popular (global?) perception of Muslim/Moro "Separatists," "Freedom Fighters," etc. as wholly "Terrorists." As well, one casual drive through the hills of Bukidnon will show you exactly how "uncolonized" are the pineapple fields which are owned by Dole and Del Monte.

By the way, you may recognize the Ifugao People of the Philippines from Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, where, in the end credits, it reads: